Category: Cllr Phil Davies

Labour run Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has £166,120,000 invested in banks despite Labour councillor comparing bankers to "train robbers"

Labour run Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has £166,120,000 invested in banks despite Labour councillor comparing bankers to “train robbers”

Labour run Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has £166,120,000 invested in banks despite Labour councillor comparing bankers to “train robbers”

                                                              

Councillor Phil Davies (Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) at a recent meeting 13th February 2015
Councillor Phil Davies (Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) at a recent meeting 13th February 2015

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Investment List

Borrower Principal (£) Interest Rate Start Date Maturity Date Lowest Long
Term Rating		 Historic Risk
of Default
National Westminster Bank 4,050,000 0.50% Call BBB+ 0.001%
Bank of Scotland PLC 10,935,000 0.60% Call A 0.000%
Barclays Bank PLC 30,126,000 0.25% Call A 0.000%
Barclays Bank PLC 10,009,000 1.25% Call A 0.000%
Bank of Scotland PLC 5,000,000 1.10% 07/01/2014 06/01/2015 A 0.001%
Treasury Bill 10,000,000 0.47% 14/07/2014 12/01/2015 AA+ 0.001%
Santander UK PLC 5,000,000 0.72% 01/08/2014 26/02/2015 A 0.014%
Barclays Bank PLC 20,000,000 0.89% 07/03/2014 05/03/2015 A 0.015%
Birmingham City Council 5,000,000 0.52% 08/09/2014 09/03/2015 AA+ 0.003%
Bank of Scotland PLC 4,000,000 0.65% 12/12/2014 12/03/2015 A 0.017%
Santander UK PLC 5,000,000 0.72% 01/08/2014 19/03/2015 A 0.019%
Bank of Scotland PLC 10,000,000 0.82% 14/08/2014 26/03/2015 A 0.020%
Santander UK PLC 5,000,000 0.73% 31/07/2014 26/03/2015 A 0.020%
PCC for Greater Manchester 5,000,000 0.45% 29/12/2014 30/03/2015 AA+ 0.004%
Midlothian Council 5,000,000 0.48% 29/12/2014 30/03/2015 AA+ 0.004%
Lloyds Bank PLC 7,000,000 0.80% 28/11/2014 29/05/2015 A 0.035%
Treasury Bill 10,000,000 0.47% 01/12/2014 01/06/2015 AA+ 0.007%
Bank of Scotland PLC 10,000,000 1.08% 14/08/2014 13/08/2015 A 0.053%
Bank of Scotland PLC 10,000,000 1.08% 18/08/2014 17/08/2015 A 0.054%
Lloyds Bank PLC 10,000,000 1.15% 31/10/2014 01/10/2015 A 0.065%
Nationwide Building Society 10,000,000 0.98% 17/10/2014 16/10/2015 A 0.069%
Bank of Scotland PLC 10,000,000 1.15% 07/11/2014 06/11/2015 A 0.074%
Total Investments £201,120,000 0.75% 0.022%

Above is a table of the £201,120,000 the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority had invested. It’s part of Capita Treasury Solutions’ December 2014 “Monthly Investment Analysis Review” for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority which is part of the papers for a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Audit Committee and accompanies this report. Continue reading “Labour run Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has £166,120,000 invested in banks despite Labour councillor comparing bankers to "train robbers"”

Why after Pickle's #righttotweet law will Wirral councillors soon decide on restricting reporting of public meetings?

Why after Pickle’s #righttotweet law will Wirral councillors soon decide on restricting reporting of public meetings?

Why after Pickle’s #righttotweet law will Wirral councillors soon decide on restricting reporting of public meetings?

                                                            

A photo of Councillor Phil Davies at the last Council meeting announcing a council tax freeze, an example of the sort of photo covered by a new draft policy on reporting on Wirral Council's public meetings
A photo of Councillor Phil Davies at the last Council meeting announcing a council tax freeze, an example of the sort of photo covered by a new draft policy on reporting on Wirral Council’s public meetings

Below is an email from myself to those on Wirral Council’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee about a proposed policy on the filming of Wirral Council’s public meetings.

To: Councillor Bill Davies
CC: Councillor Moira McLaughlin
CC: Councillor Robert Gregson
CC: Councillor Denise Roberts
CC: Councillor John Salter
CC: Councillor Les Rowlands
CC: Councillor Gerry Ellis
CC: Councillor John Hale
CC: Councillor Pat Williams
CC: Shirley Hudspeth
CC: Tayo Peters

subject: Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee meeting 3rd March 2015 Agenda item 3 Summary of the Work and Proposals of the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Working Group

Dear councillors (and others) on the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee,

Attached to this email should be a copy of the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations, the explanatory memorandum to the regulations, the report to Tuesday’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee meeting and the appendix to the report which is a draft policy.

I do not have email addresses for the independent members on the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee, so I’m copying this email to Shirley Hudspeth in the hope that they can receive a copy at the meeting itself.

I would also like to speak at Tuesday’s meeting of the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee on agenda item 3 as the issues raised here can be rather technical in nature and it is possible that people may wish to ask questions on what I’ve put here.

The report states at 2.10 “The Council’s position with regards to reporting/filming at Council and committee meetings is in essence determined by The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 (“the Regulations”) which came into force in August 2014. A copy is attached to this report.”

Unfortunately a copy of the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 has not been attached to the report as stated in Surjit Tour’s report. Continue reading “Why after Pickle's #righttotweet law will Wirral councillors soon decide on restricting reporting of public meetings?”

37 Labour councillors agree Wirral Council's budget for next year & reject amendment to keep Lyndale School open

37 Labour councillors agree Wirral Council’s budget for next year & reject amendment to keep Lyndale School open

37 Labour councillors agree Wirral Council’s budget for next year & reject amendment to keep Lyndale School open

                                                          

Councillor Phil Davies "I'm pleased that for a second successive year this Administration will freeze Wirral's council tax" Budget Council 24th February 2015
Councillor Phil Davies "I’m pleased that for a second successive year this Administration will freeze Wirral’s council tax" Budget Council 24th February 2015

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Video of the Wirral Council Budget meeting of the 24th February 2015 is above and the papers for this meeting are on Wirral Council’s website.

There was plenty of blame to go round at last night’s Council meeting, called to agree Wirral Council’s budget for 2015/16.

Labour’s Cllr Phil Davies blamed both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. The Tory Leader Cllr Jeff Green chose instead to blame the Labour Administration on Wirral Council. The Lib Dems said that both Tories (on using money for welfare assistance for other purposes) and Labour (on streetlights not being fixed) were wrong, but did agree with Cllr Green’s plea for a U-turn on the closure of Lyndale School.

The sole Green Party councillor Cllr Pat Cleary blamed first the Conservatives referring to “untold misery” caused by housing benefit reforms and then the Labour Administration for accepting the Council Tax Freeze Grant which he called “simply a bribe”.

It then went on and on and on a lot more with backbench councillors trying to score political points. In the end Labour wouldn’t back down on closing Lyndale School and the votes were as follows:

Lib Dem Budget
Votes: 5 for, 56 against, 1 abstention
LOST

Conservative amendment to Schools Budget to reverse Lyndale School closure decision
Votes: 24 for, 37 against, 1 abstention
LOST

Conservative Budget
Votes: 18 votes for, 43 against, 1 abstention
LOST

Labour budget
Votes: 37 votes for, 24 against, 1 abstention
WON

The councillors went on to agree to Eric Robinson as Chief Executive, unusually by a card vote with 57 votes for, 4 against and 1 abstention.

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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16

Councillor Phil Davies asks for "more sensible decisions" about Mersey Tunnel tolls at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 13th February 2015
Councillor Phil Davies asks for "more sensible decisions" about Mersey Tunnel tolls at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 13th February 2015

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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16

                                              

Following cross-party support for no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls from councillors on the Merseytravel committee, councillors on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority last week agreed with Merseytravel’s recommendation not to increase the tolls. Cllr Liam Robinson called on both Arriva and Stagecoach to “support local people” and “at the very least freeze their fares” in response to the news.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority went further than just agreeing with Merseytravel’s recommendation to not increase tolls this year and agreed to set up a task group to look into whether tunnel tolls could come down in future years. The task group would also call for a review of the Mersey Tunnels Act.

Cllr Phil Davies who seconded the motion creating the task group said, “I think it is timely that we do look at the whole arrangement, costing and pricing et cetera for the tunnel tolls because you know we seem to go through this annual process and it seems to inexorably increase year on year. So I do think it is a good idea to set up a task group where we can look at in-depth all of these issues and I think it’s absolutely again the timing is excellent in terms of the devolution agenda and that really plays into that and our asks.”

John McGoldrick of Mersey Tunnel Users Association, a campaign group who have long campaigned for the scrapping of tunnel tolls, “We were very pleasantly surprised at today’s decision to look again at the whole question of Tunnel’s financing and the level of tolls.”

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Wirral Council's Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16

Wirral Council’s Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16

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The budget item starts at 1m33s in the video above of the Cabinet meeting on the Budget on the 10th February 2015

Councillor Phil Davies introduces the Budget for Wirral Council for next year at the Cabinet meeting on 10th February 2015
Councillor Phil Davies (right) introduces Labour’s 2015/16 Budget for Wirral Council at the Cabinet meeting on 10th February 2015

Wirral Council’s Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16

                                       

Last night’s Cabinet meeting included Labour’s fifteen page budget recommendation to Council on the 24th February so the items below are just some highlights. Although the Wirral Council element of Council Tax is being frozen at 2014/15 levels, the Council Tax for Wirral residents may still go up because of a rise in the amount for Merseyside Police.

Continue reading “Wirral Council's Cabinet agree to continue council tax freeze for 2015/16”